The present disclosure relates to a closure for a liquid container, and particularly to a closure configured to close an open mouth formed in a threaded neck of a beverage container. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a container closure including a sealing liner.
Milk, juice, and other beverages are dispensed into jugs or containers at a bottling plant. A closure is then mounted on the container neck to close a liquid inlet/outlet opening formed in the container neck. Closures are sized and shaped to mate with container necks to minimize leakage of liquid from a closed container during shipment of filled containers from a bottling plant to a wholesale or retail store.
Some beverage containers, such as one gallon milk or orange juice jugs, are extrusion blow-molded using a polyethylene plastics material. Other beverage containers of the type used to store “sport” drinks are stretch blow-molded using a PET plastics material. In most cases, external threads are formed on the open-mouth necks of these containers to mate with a container closure formed to include mating internal threads.
Container closures are usually made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), or polypropylene (PP) and some closures are configured to be snapped onto the neck using a capping machine at the bottling plant and screwed on and off the neck by a consumer at home or elsewhere. Such “snap-on, screw-off” style closures often include many fine interior threads with many separate thread leads to enable a bottler to close the open mouth formed in the container neck by applying downward pressure on the closure to “snap” it into place on the neck of a filled container. Nevertheless, a consumer is able to twist and unscrew the threaded closure to remove it from the threaded neck of the container to access the liquid in the container.
According to the present disclosure, a liquid container closure comprises a cap and a monolithic compliant member. The monolithic compliant member includes a cap liner on an interior surface of the cap, a grip portion on an exterior surface of the cap, and a tether extending through an opening formed in the cap to tether the cap liner to the grip portion and retain the monolithic compliant member on the cap.
In an illustrative embodiment, the cap includes a top wall and an annular skirt and a grip support located between the top wall and the annular skirt. The tether-receiving opening in the cap is defined by several holes formed in the grip support and arranged to lie in spaced-apart relation to one another. The tether is defined by several posts, each post being coupled at one end to the cap liner and at another end to the grip portion and arranged to extend through one of the several holes.
Additional features of the present disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the disclosure as presently perceived.